Invite.life is a therapeutic practice with a holistic approach to psychological healing and growth. It combines techniques from a variety of schools within the mental health field – psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy and coaching, that through different and complementary means promote human well-being.
Primary focus lies on recognising difficulties as opportunities for psychological and spiritual evolvement as well as in-depth healing. Great emphasis is also placed on appreciating change – the only true constant in life – to ensure profound, ever-present peace of mind.
Below is a presentation of the main therapy methods used by Invite.life and how you can benefit from them.
COMPASSION FOCUSED THERAPY
“Loving oneself
Is the most primal
Of all survival mechanisms”
-Karen Hackel
Compassion focused therapy (CFT) is designed to relieve suffering caused by high levels of self-criticism and shame through the practice of self-compassion. Founded by British clinical psychologist Paul Raymond Gilbert, CFT is an integrative approach that uses research and tools from psychology, evolutionary theory, neuroscience and Buddhism. One of its key concerns is to help people cultivate an empowered inner disposition by consciously generating experiences of warmth and safeness.
In practice:
With specific compassion promoting exercises you will attain a liberating self-love based on kindness, acceptance and a compassionate understanding for our shared human predicament.
Mindfulness, visualisation exercises and guided meditations are the backbone of CFT practice. These mind training techniques induce a soothing neurohormonal response in the body corresponding to a physiological climate that has proven highly favourable for our well-being. CFT refers to this climate as the ‘contentment system’. When rooted in the contentment system – the compassion-focused state of being, self-defeating behaviour is no longer needed.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY
“It’s not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It’s all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same…”
-Henrik Ibsen
Psychodynamic therapy is rooted in traditional psychoanalysis founded by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Developed as a simpler, less-lengthy alternative to psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy addresses the foundation and formation of psychological processes in order to alleviate psychological distress.
In practice:
Together we will explore emotions, thoughts, early-life experiences and beliefs to gain insight into your life and present-day problems. You will be aided in identifying recurring patterns, internalised at an early age, that without your best interest at heart govern your actions and more often than not are the cause of internal and external conflicts.
Through gentle dismantling of resistance and emotional reactivity you will connect more deeply to your core self, that holds your true feelings and longings. The key components of creating a happy, fulfilled life.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
-Marcus Aurelius
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a brief, goal-oriented psychotherapy that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem solving. It aims to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and/or behaviour and thereby increasing wellbeing and functioning in everyday life.
CBT can be used to treat a wide range of issues, from relationship problems or low self-esteem to anxiety and depression.
In practice:
After a thorough mapping of the problem at hand we will work with the associated thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that serve to up-hold it. With the help of evidence based therapeutic tools we will change patterns that are not benefiting you and simultaneously create space for the full expression of your personality and abilities.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS
“There is a God part in you. The consciousness. The pure Self. Learn to listen to the voice of that Power.”
-Amit Ray
Internal Family Systems (IFS) was developed in the 1990s by family therapist Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. It recognises that each person has within them a system of sub-personalitites (parts), along with a core Self. The system can be viewed as an “internal family”, and like any other family it is not harmonious by default. Rather, the sub-personalities are often in conflict with or in denial of each other.
This inner polarisation is more pronounced in individuals who have suffered trauma at an early age. Trauma forces the parts to take on extreme roles as a way to cope with unbearable situations or feelings.
In practice:
With a steady hand I guide you in the process of merging with your Self, the faculty inside of you which is always relaxed, open and supportive. From this peaceful and resourceful place, you will connect to and get to know your parts one by one. As a result, your internal family learns to trust you and will allow you to tend to wounded parts and facilitate their healing.
The final goal of IFS therapy is to coordinate and harmonise the Self and the parts, so they can work together as a team with the Self in charge.
Contact us for your first appointment